cont'd:
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/050106SA.shtmlFeds Could "Gut" Social Security Disability Rolls
By Catherine Komp
The NewStandard
Friday 28 April 2006
The Social Security Administration has found a place to cut corners: several categories of disability-benefits recipients who the agency says can wait two more years to start collecting, no matter how much hardship the move might cause.
Advocates for low-income Americans and people with disabilities are calling on the federal government to drop a proposed change to Social Security that would force some people now qualifying for benefits to wait two more years before receiving aid.
They say the change is nothing more than an attempt to "slash the disability rolls" while increasing hardship for some of America's most vulnerable.
Critics also say the proposal would disproportionately affect people of color, especially blacks who experience higher rates of disability and have a harder time finding employment.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) rule-change proposal, published in the Federal Register last November, would make several different categories of people qualifying for disability benefits wait two more years for payments to start. Because Medicare and Medicaid eligibility are based on Social Security qualifications, individuals would have to postpone receipt of those healthcare benefits too.